Introduction to Corporate Finance

This course will provide a general understanding of financial valuation, quantitative analysis of individual and corporate financing, and savings/investment decisions. You will learn how to evaluate what an asset is worth, and how a variety of tools can help investors and managers make investment decisions. These tools include: Models such as the Gordon Growth Model and the 2-stage Dividend Discount Model; Programs such as Excel and a financial calculator; Formulas such as annuity, perpetuity, and growing perpetuity. You will explore the time value of money and learn how investors value streams of cash flows that arrive at different times. We will also discuss risk and return characteristics of different marketable securities, consider what it means for an investment to be risky, and examine methods of valuing assets.